Leading article: Aussie rules

Poor old Andrew Symonds. One might say that an Aussie cricketer being sent home from a tour for boozing makes as much sense as the sight of journalists standing in judgement of MPs for over-claiming on their expenses.

One of Symonds predecessors, David Boon, is said to have consumed 52 cans of beer on a flight from Sydney to London in advance of the 1989 Ashes tour. But Symonds has got into trouble for this kind of thing before. There are, it seems, boundaries to even the patience of the wearers of the baggy green when it comes to the grog. And Symonds breached them. In truth, he slogged the ball out the ground.

Yet one can't help wondering if sending Symonds home is wise. After all, Boony went on to average 55 over the tour after that infamous flight. Who knows what damage Symonds could have done with the bat at this month's World Twenty20 championship if his bosses had given him just one more chance?